


Feeding

by DragonsPhoenix



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Jossverse
Genre: Child Death, Child Murder, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-03
Updated: 2012-12-03
Packaged: 2017-12-05 07:34:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/720483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonsPhoenix/pseuds/DragonsPhoenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Willow's first concern once magic returns to the world is...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Feeding

**Author's Note:**

> AU after season 8 but suggestive of Willow's appearance in the Fray storyline (from Season 8 of the Buffy comics)
> 
> Written for a prompt at Open on Sunday – nest – but not posted there because it's more than 100 words.
> 
> Awards and nominations listed in endnotes.

By the time magic returned to the world, Willow had grown old. Her hands shook with age, her skin was so translucent it almost glowed, and her hair was as pale as the moon. In all that time, Willow had been learning what she could, preparing for the chance to return to her lover, but the crack between the worlds was still too small. There wasn't enough magic to bridge the gap, but there was enough for Willow to transform herself, to return to what she once had been.

Buffy was long dead, and even if a few Slayers had survived, they'd abandoned their duties over seventy years earlier. The underbellies of the cities had been left to rot, given over to the demons. Willow had enough magic to be safe on the streets, but few others did. The building she'd chosen had a few remaining letters over the front entrance, proclaiming that it had once been a community center. There was no community left, only squatters hiding out in the closest thing to safety they could find. They depended on grates over the windows, metal doors, and mostly luck to protect themselves, but their luck had just run out. The Fyarls battered through the front entrance, breaking through the metal door with only a few blows.

Hidden out in the street, Willow could feel the mother's terror as the woman – knowing it wouldn't keep the monsters out – shut the thin wooden door of the one, small room her family called a home. Willow acted quickly, before the demons could make it that far. A simple spell broke the lock that had originally held the window grate closed. Working it open through the rust required more power but not so much that it depleted Willow's magic. She watched dispassionately as the mother pushed her two children out into the street and scrambled after with the baby in one arm.

The family froze in an alley, behind the first dumpster they found, but the vampires had already caught their scent. The hoots and hollers sent the woman running, holding the baby even closer as she tried to drag the other two along faster, but there was no outracing the vampire pack. Their leader, tall and skinny, looking not much older than a kid with a ring in his nose and his hair dyed an impossible shade of orange, leaped down two feet ahead of the woman. Shrieking, she stopped so suddenly that she almost fell. Thrusting the baby into the eldest girl's arms, the mother put the three children behind herself and backed away, up the concrete steps of what had once been a townhouse. The door, unexpectedly, opened as they backed against it. The children didn't need to be told to hide.

Only one vampire, the leader, the first into the building, made it to the woman. Willow had been watching this pack for days. They were remarkably stupid, even for vampires. He didn't notice that his companions were missing as he called out to the woman. “Come here.” She stood as if frozen at the far end of what had once been a dining room. He took two strides across the room and brushed the hair away from the mother's neck. “You should listen when someone gives you an order. It might save your life one day.” Her eyes darted around as the vampire sniffed at her neck. “But not today.” When his fangs bit into her neck, her screams filled the room. As the body fell to the floor, the vampire ripped a chair out of his way and grinned down at the children's hiding place.

Over the high-pitched screams, Willow's words could barely be heard. “It's always the children who suffer the most.” The vampire didn't live long enough to spot her.

Willow smiled benevolently as she walked over to the children. Her looks had improved over the previous month. The hair, which had grown back, was pure white and tied up in a loose bun. Her skin, while still wrinkled, was firmer than it had been and her hands no longer shook. The dress, dark, looking like it belonged to an earlier age, flowed to the floor, making her look like a grandmother out of a fairy tale. “You should come with me. It isn't safe here.”

The eldest, the girl, holding the baby away from Willow and standing in front of her other brother, stopped crying long enough to reply. “Mama told us not to trust strangers.”

Willow spoke to the brother. “A big boy like you can't be afraid of little, old me?”

When he stepped out next to his sister, his chin was raised defiantly, but there was uncertainty in his eyes. The girl seemed ready to bolt, but there was no where to bolt to. Willow, bored, took the baby from the girl's arms. When Willow held her hand out to the boy, the girl pulled him away. With a glare at his sister, the boy put his hand in Willow's.

As their path to the door took them past the mother's body, the boy started crying and stopped walking. Willow gripped his hand tightly and dragged him into the night. The tears were annoying, but they were an unavoidable part of the process. The elder sister followed them down the street but her head darted to and fro, as if she were searching for help. Willow almost smiled at that. There wouldn't be anyone out, not at that time of night, not anyone who would help at least. Still, the child would be more manageable if she were distracted. “Have you ever seen bird's nests, hidden away to keep the eggs safe? That's where we're going, to my nest.”

“When we find a nest, we eat the eggs,” the girl countered.

“Ah, but my nest is perfectly safe. Nothing can get in, not unless I allow it.”

The children had never seen anything like the room that Willow brought them to. It was as warm as summer and as bright as the day. There was a table, just their height, filled with cookies and candy. Even street urchins still knew what those were. “Eat all you want, while I get this one some juice.” Willow bopped the baby on the nose.

“Don't,” the girl shouted, knocking a cookie out of her brother's hand. Grabbing another, he stuffed it into his mouth before she could stop him. “Let me have the baby.” Her voice trembled as she spoke.

Willow pulled a bottle out of the fridge. “This keeps your juice cold, yes it does,” she chanted at the baby.

“Please,” the girl said. “We won't be a bother. My brothers and I, please, let us leave.”

The boy was on his fourth cookie. The baby started sucking down the juice. “How long has it been since you've eaten, child?”

“Please.” Tears mixed with snot on the girl's face.

Willow ignored the girl after that. She wouldn't leave, not without the other two. The boy and the baby fell asleep quickly. Almost all the children did.

Willow turned her attention to the girl. “Come here.” Eyes grew wide as the girl's feet dragged her forward. Willow squatted down until they were face to face. “Thank you. Such an obedient little thing you are.” Pulling out a tissue, Willow wiped the girl's face clean. The words to the spell, once difficult to speak, flowed like honey off of Willow's tongue. Screams echoed off the walls as Willow's inhalation drew a golden mist from the girl's mouth. When the girl fell to the floor, Willow rose and checked her mirror. Some of the wrinkles around her lips had vanished and the red was returning to her hair. She felt more youthful than she had in decades, but the taste in her mouth was something awful. Willow spat out the girl's screams.

The boys would be easier. In their drugged sleeps, they wouldn't scream.

**Author's Note:**

> Nominated at the Absence of Light Awards 
> 
> At Willowy Goodness, won the Best Just Willow fic: 
> 
> At Willow Goodness, won Best Just Willow Author: 
> 
> At Willowy Goodness, won Best Evil Willow Characterization 


End file.
